How 'Redacted' Were Documents from the F.B.I.'s Clinton Investigation?

Update September 2, 2016: Lookups spiked again after the F.B.I. released its summary report of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. The report includes an interview with Clinton and had already been seen by Congress. Its conclusions, notably that Clinton did not intentionally violate laws and consequently would not be indicted, had already been known. The new material includes summaries of interviews with Clinton and her staff but was heavily redacted—14 of the 58 pages of the report were redacted in full. Redact is a term most frequently used in official and legal contexts.

Lookups for redact spiked after the F.B.I. gave Congress materials from their investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.

Chaffetz (R-Utah) said his staff had informed him that among the materials turned over was a “heavily redacted” 302 from Clinton herself, and he was not sure that any of the information could be released publicly.
—Matt Zapotosky and Karoun Demirjian, The Washington Post, 16 Aug., 2016

According to a person familiar with the matter, the unclassified portions of the FBI’s material weren’t heavily redacted, with the exception of some names.
—Devlin Barrett, The Wall Street Journal, 16 Aug., 2016

Redact has been used as a verb since at least the 15th century, although the earliest meanings of the word were somewhat different than the one that is generally encountered today. Earlier senses of the word have included “to select or adapt for publication; edit,” and “to lower in condition or quality.” A more common current meaning of redact is “to obscure or remove (text) from a document prior to publication or release.”

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